December links

photograph by Saul Leiter

Well, “Snow Revolution” or no, Christmas is coming – if not to Russia, then at least to America.

Economist husband and I are catching a plane soon – we get to celebrate Christmas with my family in MN! Here’s a few roundups from around the web to get you in the Christmas mood:

1) Carlson School of Management celebrates Christmas. (In case you’ve somehow missed this awesome video going around the web!) See how awesome Minnesotans are at celebrating Christmas?

2) There are so many similarities between Moscow and New York. This article from The Onion on New York made me laugh – I could see just switching the city names and this could pretty much be about Russia’s capital - “8.4 Million New Yorkers Suddenly Realize New York City a Horrible Place To Live – ‘We’re Getting the Hell Out Of This Sewer’, Entire Populace Reports’” (please note that this article contains inappropriate language…be forewarned!)

3) Also, Crying in public - another big city phenomenon that Moscow and New York have in common…

the metro, for example, is a great place to cry...

4) You know who’s an amazing photographer?? Saul Leiter. I found a blog post online that said this about him: “Leiter might be regarded as the master of the “indecisive” moment – those in-between moments when nothing of much importance seems to be happening but which resonate with a profound if understated sense of interior drama.”

Here are a few of his photo’s:

by Saul Leiter

photo by Saul Leiter

I love the imperfect grainy-ness of the images, and the colors that look like impressionist blobs of paint. Gorgeous.

photo by Saul Leiter

Here’s a quote from Leiter: “In order to build a career and to be successful, one has to be determined. One has to be ambitious. I much prefer to drink coffee, listen to music and to paint when I feel like it.”

5) Do you have any advent traditions? Do you think the advent season is important? In what way? I find it so hard to keep Christmas or any holiday (except maybe Easter) in Russia because no one else around me is celebrating – they’re all working like crazy and running around in the slush. December 25 is not a holiday in Russia.

Photo by Hus&Hem

Here are a few links to read to get you thinking about Christmas and Advent:

• Christmas is about waiting (thinking about intentionally setting time apart for Advent and waiting) -by Jennifer Dougan
• How to Really Wake up to Living (perhaps a way to slow down during Advent?) – by Ann Voskamp
• Advent season in Ukraine – by Phyllis Hunsucker
• Someone’s lying about Christmas -from Jeff Goins
• Christmas in Moscow is weird – also from last year

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